My Foray into My Midwestern Roots

Tuesday Thingers (or why I love shopping for books!)

Lori Thornton at Smokey Mountain Family History asks: What’s your favorite bookstore? Is it an online store or a bricks-and-mortar store? How often do you go book shopping?

I’ve loved all book stores since I was a child. Most of the books I bought when I was growing up came from the book and magazine area of local stores. Unless it’s a book I really want to own, I generally try to find something at my local library (I’m all for free!).

Today I generally go to Borders or Barnes & Noble to purchase books. I love wandering through our Half Price Bookstore as well looking for new releases for half price. One of the malls also has a Books-A-Million but I only go there when I have to be at that mall. Up the road a few blocks in one of the strip shopping centers is a discount book store. It is privately owned and very small. Over the 20+ years I’ve lived in the area, the book store has changed hands many times. One owner had cats that would be curled up at various locations in the store. They even used to host book signings by local authors.

When Barnes & Noble came to our area, I was fascinated with the concept of a book store having chairs and sofas available for people who just wanted to read. Excuse me? I used to get chased out of stores because I was reading the merchandise instead of buying it. What a great concept! Instead of deciding on a book because of the back cover, I could read a few pages to see if it was going to hold my interest. Not only that but there was a coffee shop (most have Starbucks) as part of the atmosphere as well.

When my husband and I were first married, we spent three hours at a bookstore in Dallas. It was huge and also had a large “technical book” area which my husband loved. The store was in a shopping center close to what used to be Prestonwood Mall (now both the mall and the bookstore are out of business).

For our family going to the book store is a family affair. Everyone wants a new book. Unfortunately, I don’t have a separate “library” room so we are always being over run by all the books we buy (another reason we hit the library more often!). We tend to go book shopping at least once a month, but if I’m out and about and have to be somewhere close to one of the stores I enjoy, I will stop in and browse.

I’ve ordered books from Amazon because they generally aren’t in any of the book stores close to me, but I’d rather ask my local store to order it if they can (to save on shipping).